Bizarre Netwoking Problem (XP client & 2000 server)

[Glenn]

Hello,

A strange thing occurred on my network, I will try to be informative and
concise.
Server is running Windows 2000 server SP3. Been up for 6 months running
relatively well with Active Directory, DNS, DHCP. About 15 clients
primarily Win XP Pro, Win 2000 Pro and a few NT 4 W/S.

Anyway one Win XP machine (SP1, like all the other XP machines) all the
sudden could not access the network. Nothing on this client machine had
changed and nothing on the user account changed. After spending a couple of
hours troubleshooting and attempting to find out what transpired I was
stumped. For the fun of it after trying a new ethernet cable and port in
the hub, I went to the NIC properties. As with 90% of the other
workstations, it gets it's IP and DNS info from the server (via DHCP). So,
I went to the server and "killed" the previously assigned IP for that
machine from the DHCP console. Then I changed the properties to hardcoded
value for IP (192.168.1.161), subnet (255.255.255.0), gateway (192.168.1.1)
and preferred/alternate DNS server (64.9.48.6, 64.9.0.6). Lo and behold it
worked! Great. Then I rebooted the client, and it still worked. I change
it back to the original values ("obtain IP address automatically" & "obtain
DNS server auto") and it went back to not working again. Reboot - still not
working. Change back to hardcoded values, it works.

So, currently it is working but for the wrong reason.

The only thing that had changed on the server level was a RAID firmware
upgrade to the server (Dell PowerEdge 2600) the night before. Obviously
that in and of itself shouldn't have effected the OS, except for some of the
drivers. And none of the other client machines (who have rebooted after the
server upgrade) are experiencing the same problem, just this one XP machine.
For good measure, I even used the Windows XP System Restore feature and
backed up a couple of days, and the exact same situation occurs.

Any insight as to what the problem could be? Why IP assignment from server
is wreaking havoc to this one PC?

TIA!
Glenn
glennb*at*team*dash*sys*dot*com.

 

[sharad]

You are not only the one to experience this!
On DHCP server I added that IP in exclusion range
then it started assinging a new IP to the client, and
it worked. After about a month I removed the exclusion,
found that IP got assinged to a new workstation we added, and it worked! no
problems!

 

[Marina Roos]

Your server should be at SP4. Have you at least got the ms03-039 patch
installed on the server as on the clients?
DNS should *only* point to the server-IP.
How many nics in the server? Do you have option 003, 006 and 015, 044 and
046 (0x8) set in DHCP-server, Scope options?

 

[Glenn]

Hi Marina and thanks.

Your server should be at SP4. Have you at least got the ms03-039 patch
installed on the server as on the clients?

Yes, I suppose I should go to SP4 but I have been hesitant since [a] things
by in large are working, I hesitate to update then have something critical
*not* work, and since the server is internal via NAT and not performing
any outside to the world functions. The patch is installed however on all
machines.

DNS should *only* point to the server-IP.

You mean under DNS "interfaces" tab?
Currently for 'Listen on' - All IP Addresses is selected.
Are you saying it should be 'Only the following IP.........' where as the IP
is my server (192.168.1.2)?

If this is incorrect then where do you mean in your statement?

How many nics in the server?

I do have 2 NICs- a built in and PCIl. However the PCI is has not cable and
is "disable" in device manager, so for all intents and purposes it's not
there.

Do you have option 003, 006 and 015, 044 and

046 (0x8) set in DHCP-server, Scope options?

Yes I do.

Thanks again for your help!
Glenn

 

[Marina Roos]

Hi Glenn,

See inline

Hi Marina and thanks.

Your server should be at SP4. Have you at least got the ms03-039 patch
installed on the server as on the clients?

Yes, I suppose I should go to SP4 but I have been hesitant since [a] things
by in large are working, I hesitate to update then have something critical
*not* work, and since the server is internal via NAT and not performing
any outside to the world functions. The patch is installed however on all
machines.

Just stop all 3rd party services and install it. I've installed many servers
with SP4 without any problem at all.

You mean under DNS "interfaces" tab?
Currently for 'Listen on' - All IP Addresses is selected.
Are you saying it should be 'Only the following IP.........' where as the IP
is my server (192.168.1.2)?

If this is incorrect then where do you mean in your statement?

DNS on the servernic(s) should only point to your server-IP. In DNS-server,
the listen on should point to your server-IP. The ISP-DNS-numbers should be
set in tab Forwarders.

I do have 2 NICs- a built in and PCIl. However the PCI is has not cable and
is "disable" in device manager, so for all intents and purposes it's not
there.

Do you have option 003, 006 and 015, 044 and

006 and 044 are pointing to your server-IP, 003 is pointing to your gateway
IP from the nic, and 015 is your ad domainname like company.local, right?

 

[Randy Gross]

I have seen this same problem. W2K Server running a a file
server only (no active directory), server has been up and
running for over a year, no recent updates (SP4 has been
installed and was working), all of the sudden no machine
(all XP Pro) can browse the network server. Shares that
were defined previously continue to work but new shares
cannot be added as you cannot browse the server.

I don't know id anyone will answer this post but this is a
BIG problem if it is common.

So far, Tech Support has had me elevate the server to
Master Browser and after rebooting the server this worked,
for a while. Two days later I returned to the client site
to find the same problem. Still trying to track this down.